Follow Us

More

Trial & Error: Revisiting the Original Trial of The Flash

On the hit CW television series The Flash, Barry Allen has been framed for the murder of Clifford DeVoe (who is secretly alive, having transferred his brain to the body of another metahuman), and he is about to stand trial for the capital crime. This, of course, is a reference to a classic DC Comics arc from the 1980s that lasted for well over two years and encompassed the final storyline in Barry Allen's original ongoing series. Read on to learn the story of how Barry Allen came to be place on trial back in the 1980s and what happened in the comics.

It all started with 1979's The Flash #275 (by Cary Bates, Alex Saviuk and Frank Chiaramonte), which has to be one of the strangest major character deaths in comic book history. First of all, it takes place at a costume party, with Barry amusingly dressed as The Flash and his wife, Iris West-Allen, dressed as Batgirl. At the end of the issue, both Barry and Iris are in bad shape (Barry had just been dosed with angel dust), so we don't even know who died until the next issue!

Obviously, we soon learn that it was Iris who died. Barry was still dealing with the effects of the angel dust, so he handled it very poorly. He even fought against his own Justice League teammates while dealing with the tragedy. He had just started to get his life back together when, in Flash #283 (by Bates, Don Heck and Frank Chiaramonte), we learned that it was the Reverse Flash that had murdered Iris!

advertising

After a big fight through multiple dimensions, the Flash abandoned the Reverse Flash (also known as Eobard Thawne and also known as Professor Zoom) in another dimension...

The Flash made his way back home and he appeared to finally be moving forward with his life. He eventually even met a new love interest, Fiona Webb (the name that Beverely Lewis was given when she entered into the Witness Relocation Program). He ultimately proposed to Fiona and they got engaged. They planned to marry quickly. By this time, legendary Flash artist Carmine Infantino had returned to the series for the first time in years and had become the regular artist again. In Flash #323 (by Bates, Infantino and inker Rodin Rodriguez), Barry learned that Thawne had somehow escaped his dimensional prison and was slowly making his plans to screw with Barry once more.

advertising

Barry ended up having to stand Fiona up at their wedding while he was off fighting Zoom!

Their battle took up most of the next issue, while Fiona was having a breakdown over being left at the altar by Barry. Then, Barry learned Zoom's plan - he was going to kill Barry's wife (well, soon-to-be wife) again! Zoom is one twisted dude.

Barry, though, managed to catch up with Zoom before he managed to kill Fiona, but in the process, Zoom's neck was snapped!

Fiona was spared, the villain was dead, if there were any justice in the world, any ramifications from Barry's actions would stop there.